The Things I Love About You (Completed)

C h a p t e r S e v e n

A/N
Surprise!

After several deep breaths and minutes of trying to forget last New Year's day, I force a smile onto my face and walk out of the room with the intent to go see Scott  again. I stop dead in my tracks when I see him standing outside the door with his head down, arms cross over his chest and a frown on his face.

"Mitch." he says, voice shaking.

"Y-yeah?" I stutter, gripping the door frame at my side.

"You said you loved me."

"What?"

"How could you kiss Travis?"

"Shit, Scott, I..." I trail off, unsure of where to begin even attempting to explain myself. The hurt in his eyes makes my stomach turn.

"When was it?"

"Last New Year's." I say quietly. His voice is too soft, but filled with enough hurt to kill me.

"Why?"

"Because I was drunk. I...I thought he was you."

"You thought he was me." he repeats. "You got drunk and kissed Travis...because you thought he was me?"

"Y-yes." I expect him to yell, get mad, something, but he just shakes his head and walks away in silence. The tense air between us hangs there even after he is gone, and I wish he would have yelled. Unsure of what to do with myself, I retreat into my bedroom. Outside my door, I hear the sound of footsteps and rolling wheels. Scared to face Scott, I stay in my room, curled into a ball on my bed. After about twenty minutes of silence, there is a quiet knock on my door.

"Mitch?" It is Connie's voice. I brush at the tears staining my cheeks.

"Come in." The door pushes open and I see her standing there, expecting some sort of scolding.

"Can we talk?" I nod and sit up. "I just wanted to let you know that Scott left. He's going home and you're going to come home on the plane with us." My heart sinks.

"Okay." After a pause, I say, "Do you hate me?"

"No, Mitch, never." She closes the door and sits next to me, pulling me into a side hug. "Who am I to judge? I've made my fair share of mistakes in my life. Trust me."

"Have you ever cheated on your boyfriend with your best friend?" I ask miserably.

"Well, no, but one time I accidentally spent $99,000 on a 45 year old car that didn't run properly." I laugh and say, "I don't really think that's the same."

"It's not. I know. But like I said, I'm not going to judge you for anything you do. What you and Scott do doesn't affect me, and I'm happy to help either of you through it. I see you as another son to me, and I'll treat you that way. I have to ask, though, was there any particular reason you got drunk in the first place?"

"I don't really want to talk about it." I mumble.

"The only way to work through it is to face it." She pauses. "It's up to you." I close my eyes and try to remember why I ended up pouring the first of many glasses of champagne.

"I...Scott and I were going to celebrate New Year's together. Travis was supposed to go out with Alex and Jake and Todrick, and Scott and I were gonna have the house to ourselves. Neither of us wanted to go wherever they were going- I don't remember where it was. But then Scott came to visit you and Rick, because of something with Lauren, some recital or something. Travis, being my best friend, after Scott, decided to stay home and let the other three go out. I was missing Scott a lot, and I didn't want to be sad anymore so I had a couple glasses of champagne."

"How many is a couple?" she cuts in.

"Uh...twelve?" She nods. "Anyway, I had a couple glasses and by that point I couldn't even tell right from left. I think, subconsciously, I was still missing Scott so much that my brain turned Travis into him. Then I kissed him, and he didn't do anything. I even started calling him Scott, and he still didn't do anything. I think he must've been more drunk than I was."

"Did you only kiss once?"

"No." I say, swallowing the lump in my throat. "It was a lot, and it got really heated. Sorry, you probably don't want details."

"If you giving me details will help you through this, then by all means." I nod and think carefully about my words.

"We were sitting on the couch, waiting for the ball to drop, and we had already kissed a couple times. And then, we-" I stop, memories from the rest of the night hitting me like a ton of bricks. "No." I whisper. "That couldn't have happened."

"Mitch, how far did you go with him?" she asks, taking her arm from around me and looking me in the eye. I press my hands over my mouth.

"We slept together."

****

After I break down, Connie decides to leave me alone. I try countless times to call Scott, but it goes straight to voicemail. After a while, the message I get changes to, "This number is unavailable at the moment. Please try again later." I realize that he blocked me. My phone slips out of my hand and lands face down on the wooden floor with a loud crack. At this point, I don't care. All I can think about it how Scott hates me, probably never wants to see me again. I doubt he will be home when I get there. I pick my phone up tentatively and sigh in relief when it is still functioning. I get an odd urge to call Travis, but I can't. He's in the hospital. Neither of my best friends are available right now, so I call Kirstie instead. She doesn't answer either. Eventually I give up and crawl under the covers of my bed. This only makes me feel worse. I can only think about Scott and I devoting our love to each other, me thinking that I lost my virginity to him. But I didn't. It was Travis. The thought makes me feel sick to my stomach and I burrow farther under the sheets, hoping that I might suffocate.

****

Connie and Rick, along with my dad, decide that we can leave a day early so I get home before Scott, that way I might have a chance of seeing him again before he disappears. I sit in the seat next to window, hands gripping the arm rests tightly as the plane begins to shake. I normally hold Scott's hand when this happens, but I screwed up, so I don't have that option. At some point I fall asleep, and I only wake up again when someone nudges me awake.

"We're here." Meghan says, pulling on my hand. I let my little sisters pull me out of the seat and onto the plane. Ahead, I see that my dad already got my bags and his own, so I just follow with my head down and my hands tucked into my pockets. After the short drive to my house, we pull into the driveway and for the first time in a very long time, the driveway is empty. I stare at the massive house in front of us, not wanting to go in. I've never been alone in the house made for six people alone; there has always been at least one of my five roommates there. I go in, anyway, and take in the empty silence. Tears roll down my cheeks again as I look down the first hallway and see the open door of Travis's bedroom. I look over at the staircase that leads up into the seemingly endless house, and all that sits there is a pair of shoes. I climb it to my bedroom, directly across the hall from Scott's, and see his door open. A drawer is open from packing quickly to go to Michigan, and a pair of his boxers are hanging over the side. I drop my bags in my own room and go back over to his, shutting the door and sitting on the carpet. I just stare around the room, remembering mine and Scott's first kiss, over in the corner next to his bed. I go stand there and imagine that he is with me, still in love with me, still happy. But then I open my eyes, and I am faced with the reality. He is gone, and he wants nothing to do with me. We are over.